The invention concerns a device for handling microtomized tissue samples which are disposed on an object carrier and are provided with a machine-readable code, with a reader serving to detect the information of the code and a controller serving to convert the information for handling purposes, wherein a transfer device and at least one drive are configured to introduce object carriers to a storage device.
In manual handling procedures, the object carriers can be provided with a code which contains all substantial information needed for evaluation and storage. After cutting, stretching and mounting the sample onto an object carrier, includes drying and deparaffinization of the sample located on the object carrier, further processing takes place, frequently making use of the code. The samples must thereby be dyed, such that the tissue structures are clearly visible under the microscope. After dyeing, the object carrier is covered by a cover glass or another protective layer in order to protect the sample from being damaged. If all tissue samples are equally treated in a standardized process, they can be guided one after the other through the process, thereby maintaining their order and thereby the allocation to a certain patient. When the samples from one patient are processed differently, they must pass through different processing stations or be wetted with different reagents, usually for dyeing. Since the treatment of individual samples with reagents is uneconomical and expensive, the object carriers are sorted into object carrier baskets in accordance with the intended treatment, and such larger amounts thereof can be processed together in an economical fashion. In consequence thereof, any evaluation-oriented allocation with the patient is lost when such a large number of object carriers are processed. It is, however, necessary that the object carriers with the tissue samples of a patient be sorted out from the processed sample tissues, and collected, since all tissue samples of a patient must be available simultaneously for diagnostic evaluation. Towards this end, they are disposed on one or, if required, several presentation carriers. This allocation has been done manually up to now which is laborious and susceptible to errors. Since ever increasing numbers of object carrier codes are only designed as machine-readable codes, manual sorting has become even more difficult.
Devices for carrying out such procedures are not known in the art, rather handling devices for object carriers for different applications.
DE 102 22 333 A1 discloses a handling device for object carriers, which fills plates with object carriers. However, this device does not propose allocation of object carriers and therefore neither detects codes nor requires their information. It merely concerns sequential filling of plates with object carriers provided from a printer.
The device and method according to DE 101 54 843 A1 aim to ensure that the identification of the object carriers comprising microtomized tissue samples coincides with the information of the tissue samples from which they originate, as well as to prevent allocation errors during identification, which involves, at least in part, manual handling. The identification of the microtomized tissue samples can be detected mechanically, but this document does not disclose a device which allocates unsorted object carriers according to some criteria.
US 2003/0215936 A1 discloses a method and a device for automated mass-analysis of microtomized tissue samples. These are thereby disposed on identifiable locations of arrays, which are designed as orthogonal arrangements on carriers, which are, in turn, stacked in several layers. This serves to hold a tissue sample within a spatial matrix composed of a plurality of sample cores defined thereby. The above mentioned device is also suitable for stacking individual object carriers above and next to each other. The problem of allocation of tissue samples to a patient is solved by data processing means, since the evaluation and classification are each performed automatically. Patient-oriented spatial allocation of the microtomized tissue samples is therefore not required, in contrast to manual evaluation. Nor are carrier elements disclosed with which differing object carriers, which are to be processed, can be joined together for simultaneous, patient oriented diagnostic evaluation. Since the preparation device is configured for the acceptance of individual object carriers, the levels also fail to extend in a downward direction to accommodate additional reception area so that the receptive capacity is insufficient to accommodate large numbers of samples.
DE 102 36 417A1 discloses large scale scanning of objects with object carriers being introduced to a scanner and subsequently being archived. Since the electronic images are used for diagnosis, these can be arranged using data processing techniques and presented on a display screen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,892 discloses a handling system for object carriers of the above mentioned kind to remove same from a cassette in which they are stacked, one above the other, and to supply them to a microscope. Subsequent thereto, they can be reintroduced to the same location or to another position in the cassette. Machine readable codes facilitate control.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,318 also discloses a handling system for object carriers of the above mentioned kind with which the object carriers are stacked above each other in cassettes which are located in a carousel type magazine. The device is designed to facilitate removal to feed the object carriers to a microscope for observation. However, the removal device can be also used to re-sort the object carriers from one cassette to another. Machine readable codes thereby serve for control of automized operation and handling.
Both handling systems of the above mentioned kind are not suitable for the purpose of diagnostic evaluation, since neither a patient orientated association of the object carriers is carried out, nor are the cassettes suitable for the simultaneous evaluation, in a diagnostic sense, of the samples from a patient and presentation thereof. Visual observation is only possible when the object carriers are removed from the cassettes.
Even the concrete configuration of disposition in cassettes would not solve the problem underlying the present invention. This is the case since, as mentioned above, large numbers of object carriers, which must be processed together, have to be re-orientated and organized with respect to the individual patients. Since economic feasibility is only achieved by large amounts of samples which can be treated in a uniform manner, subsequent ordering to an unacceptably large number of patients must take place. In consequence thereof, the number of patients determines the number of necessary carriers such that a plurality of carriers must be provided for one patient, should the capacity of a carrier be insufficient.
In this regard, the device according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,892 is completely unsuitable, since it is not configured for acceptance of a cassette and thereby prohibits association with a large number of separately handleable carriers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,318 also fails to provide suggestions in this direction, although a plurality of cassettes are disposed on a carousel and object carriers can be re-sorted from one cassette to another. In addition to the fact that, as mentioned above, the cassettes are not suitable for the current instant application, an insufficient number can be accommodated on the carousel to facilitate sorting of large quantities. In addition, with such re-sorting, half of the cassettes must be used to provide space for the re-sorted object carriers, such that the other half of the sets located on the carousel can be sorted in a corresponding fashion. This prevents handling of a number of samples needed for economic operation.
The number of carriers necessary for economical operation to receive the object carriers is not satisfied by the above mentioned devices and they are also limited with regard to manual handling.
An individual attempting to associate and identify object carriers from one patient for simultaneous presentation to diagnostic evaluation can however envision use of a large table with the presentation carriers deposited thereon for purposes of such an association. However, the object carriers cannot be sorted within the still larger number of presentation carriers, which requires a larger table. It is not possible to keep track of such a large number of presentation carriers, and the corresponding size of the depositing area required for the presentation carriers is not available in the laboratory and provision thereof would not be economical.
It is therefore the underlying purpose of the present invention to provide for a large number of uniformly handled object carriers whose association with a patient has been lost by collective association for common processing and to do so in an economical fashion which is patient oriented such that simultaneous presentation of the objects coming from a patient is possible for diagnostic evaluation.